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ACT's severe weather changes

To prepare for future events we need to understand the past.

storm

heatwave

fire

earthquake

flood

General facts

Sheep killed

300

Volunteer firefighters

200

Event date

16 Jan 1905

Fire 1 Jan 1905

This was an incredibly destructive bushfire, striking land between Glenwood and the Murrumbidgee. Newspapers at the time reported that horses, sheep, dogs, homes and wheat and hay stacks were all destroyed.

Every person available stopped work to fight the fires and as the fire spread, streets were emptied with over one hundred men volunteering to fight the fires. The fire fighters returned to townships and reported an incredibly fast-moving fire.

It is thought the fire originated somewhere on the Murrumbidgee, with the flames carried easterly by a high wind. Newspapers reported bushfires sped through one Glenwood property incredibly quickly, leaving a space three miles wide of black ruins behind it, and killing about 300 sheep. Reaching property at Ginninderra it still raged and destroyed almost everything, including horses, dogs, other livestock, hay and straw stacks and wagons.

When the fire reached Gungahleen it was about two miles wide and was fought by about 200 men. Telegraph poles were burned down, so communication with Queanbeyan interrupted. This meant back-up from others in Queanbeyan was delayed. It is not sure where the fire was started, with some claiming it was from a fire the previous week which was burning at Murrumbidgee; others blamed the negligence of fishermen.